20th Century Tales Forum

B-17 Mid Air Collision 1943
UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!
WHAT A PLANE AND WHAT A CREW
The term "Greatest Generation" doesn't mean just people but can be equally applied to some of the finest aircraft designs of all time; the C-47 transport, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-38 Lightning, both superb fighters! And of course the B-24 Liberator, the F4U Corsair (the Navy's greatest carrier fighter), the P-51 Mustang (arguably the finest fighter aircraft of its time) and finally the B-17 whose crews said would bring them home in almost any condition and here's one of those conditions! Tough Bird!!

A mid-air collision on February 1, 1943 between a B-17 and a German fighter over the Tunis dock area became the subject of one of the most famous photographs of World War II... An enemy fighter attacking a 97th Bomb Group formation went out of control, probably with a wounded pilot, then continued its crashing descent into the rear of the fuselage of a Fortress named All American, piloted by Lt. Kendrick R. Bragg, of the 414th Bomb Squadron.

When it struck, the fighter broke apart, but left some pieces in the B-17. The left horizontal stabilizer of the Fortress and left elevator were completely torn away. The two right engines were out and one on the left had a serious oil pump leak. The vertical fin and the rudder had been damaged, the fuselage had been cut almost completely through connected only at two small parts of the frame and the radios, electrical and oxygen systems were damaged. There was also a hole in the top that was over 16 feet long and 4 feet wide at its widest and the split in the fuselage went all the way to the top gunner

The Wifes Birthday is Oct, 23rd...Her father was a waist gunner in a 17...he only talked about it late one night when he was very drunk...think about sending farm boys up in those things!
It would be similar to grabbing some kid off the street, and making them command the next Space Launch in a few months, except nobody would be trying to shoot at them!. His one hand was frostbitten (more than once) while clearing a jam, and pained him throughout his life. She has a big copper coin he carried for good luck, its rubbed smooth, you cant even tell what it is, just a disc with a groove worn in it from all the rubbing. Theres a great library down in Montgomery Alabama at a base where you can go and research through the historical files of the sorties flown, some of the Company Historians were real poetic writers. Its amazing to see how this Country came together to support an effort like that war. On his last mission, only himself and two other guys were alive on that plane, his buddy, the tailgunner, had his heating lines shot through, and he froze to death in the turret, when my father in law got to him and pulled his helmet off, the guys ears and scalp were frozen to the inside of it. Those B-17's were really something, mechanical almost living marvels! The men that were in them were really something too, as is anybody that experiences that kind of terror and still is able to function on this planet...